Vray Blend mtl with different displacement maps

V-Ray V-Ray for 3ds Max General
1

Hey, Everyone!

I tried searching in the forum for answers but I didn’t find a specific one, so I got to ask.

I’ve got the new quixel mixer and created some really nice surfaces from their scanned library.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cx73n1cv2j…oject.mp4?dl=0

However, this is just a 4x4 meter tile, and still there are visible repetition on a larger terrain. So I made a few different versions and I wanted to blend them in max using the vray blend blend material and a noise mask.

I figured that if you leave the texture field in the VrayDisplacementMod empty, and tell him to use the displacement texture from the material, it works great. (I didn’t know that)

However, the surface were still not rendering quite right. So I did some experiments and I concluded that the displacement, the bump and maybe the normal maps are still used only from the base, and the coat materials are just… coat.

If I use the sand for base, I don’t have the displacement for the rocks. If I plug the rock as base, I have rocky displacement in the sand materials. At fist I thought it was a bug, but then I realized it is maybe how it is suppose to work?

So, the question is, am I right, or I’m missing something? And, what other method for correct blending of terrains comes to mind?

Cheers!

P.S>

It works great for blending photogrammetry assets with the ground though :slight_smile:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bv3y6n7lim…blend.mp4?dl=0

P.P.S

And of course I tried to blend the textures first and then give it to the materials and it works! However, it is kinda limiting…

Dropbox - Untitled Project.mp4

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image_42344.jpg
image_42344.jpg2116×799 389 KB

That’s the result of blending the textures and using a single material.

3

this is unfortunately how it works. only one material can use displacement. you would have to create a new composited map to use for displacement.

4

Yes, @MANUEL_MOUSIOL is correct. Though, it’s on our to-do list for a future update to implement blending of the displacement maps of the sub-materials in the VRayBlendMtl.

5

This still appears to be an issue. Unfortunately I am also finding problems when using v-ray distance tex or vertex painting in the composited displacement map. Is there any know work around at the moment?

Thank you in advance for your help!

6

Would be great if the implementation of the feature could be bumped up. It’s a terrible situation to be honest.

7

Another important issue:

displacement in materials is controlled by the settings in the render settings and there is no way to turn on “keep continuity”, which is pretty important, don’t you think?

With the fast GPU displacement I’m using it more and more but these issues give a lot of limitations and should be addressed asap, in my opinion.
An overhaul of how displacement works in vray is long overdue.

8

I’ve just been pointed here, as I’ve just run into the issue myself. Using the new Quixel Bridge to populate scenes with complete material setup is such a neat thing, but the blending of complete Quixel materials isn’t possible using VrayBlend node at present - so 1 object = 1 scanned material :frowning:
As displacement is an essential element of Quixel’s ( and pretty much scanned workflows ) I think it would be beneficial for all if Chaos Group prioritises this area.

9

If the blend for the material can be extracted from the shader (ie. the shader blend is standard bitmaps), then it’s going to work just fine if put into a displacement modifier.
It’s not as easy as a port over, granted, but i can’t think of many cases where it’s a show-stopper.
If there are, could you show me one (ie. something that would only work with displacement inside a shader)?
I’m saying this as a workaround, of course. It’ll all be much nicer when it’ll work as intended from within the shader.

@MANUEL_MOUSIOL you can add a displacement modifier to your geo, and set the options there. then tell it to use the material. “Keep Continuity” is on the modifier, regardless of where the displacement info come from. (for CPU.)

10

As far as I know only one of those displacement maps is going to be used though. If you have a displacement map in all of the different blended materials, just one is going to be used, no?

11

From inside the shader, currently yes.

12

would be more than helpful if chaosgroup would develop such a blend material where the displacement is piped trough. Unreal Engine is taking over.

13

It makes sense from a user’s point of view anyway.
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14

Any progress/workaround on this subject?

15

I guess blending displacement still sucks? I just ran into this while trying to use distance maps to mask displacement between materials.

Seems to not work with blend material or compositemaps into a vray material =/

16

Any news about blending displacement? It’s just strange - some attributes of material are blended and some are not. Why???

17

that was 3 years ago …

18

+1

Bumping this thread! A Blend material where you could blend displacement maps would make it much easier! Could it be implemented in V-ray 5 before the next upgrade cycle, pleeeeaaaase? :wink:

19

Also Vray distance tex doesn’t seem to take V-ray displacement into account, or does it?

20

Do you expect the displacement blend to work as the rest of the materials’ components (to actually blend between layers) OR to add the values of each layer on top of the previous one (additive)?

The first one seems more logical deriving from how the rest of things work.

p.s. this change will be a part of Update 2 :slight_smile: